Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte and Russian
billionaire Yuri Milner’s DST Global, also made investments,
Flipkart said in a statement today. The e-commerce company said
it has 22 million registered users and handles 5 million
shipments a month.

Today’s investment would be the most raised in India's
e-commerce industry, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The
money will provide Flipkart with additional impetus as it fights
to maintain its lead against competitors such as Amazon.com Inc.
in a market that CLSA Asia Pacific Markets projects will grow
sevenfold to $22 billion by 2018.

“This funding will let us make big bets on changing the
structure of the ecommerce ecosystem in India,” Chief Executive
Officer Sachin Bansal told reporters in Bengaluru. “It helps us
take a really long term view of where the market is headed and
how we want to shape it.”

Flipkart plans to develop its infrastructure for mobile-based e-commerce, add more items to its portal and acquire
companies in related areas, Bansal said.

Mobile Internet

Flipkart and Myntra.com had a combined 9 percent share of
the 170 billion rupees ($2.8 billion) worth of Internet
retailing transactions in India in 2013 before they merged in
May, according to data from Euromonitor International published
in May. Amazon had a 1.6 percent share selling everything from
lingerie to smartphones, and said yesterday it was opening five
new warehouses to facilitate speedier delivery across the
country.

India has 243 million Internet users, Flipkart said in its
statement. The company estimated the world’s second-most
populous nation will have more than 500 million mobile Internet
users by 2020.

Bloomberg News reported details of the investment on July
23. Bansal declined to comment on Flipkart’s shareholding
structure or other financial details. The company will continue
to seek private funds to expand and is not considering a public
offering, he said.

Flipkart could use the funds to expand its offerings and
improve delivery infrastructure in India’s small towns, said
Pinakiranjan Mishra, partner at Ernst & Young in India.

Accel Partners, Morgan Stanley Investment Management,
ICONIQ Capital and Sofina SA also invested in Flipkart,
according to the statement.

“They have done a good job of popularizing e-commerce and
building a loyal customer base,” Mishra said in a phone
interview. “Now they have to find ways of making the business
profitable.”